A conversation between different worlds

After his last stream ended, Wang Lei had thought it over carefully. He believed the person everyone saw as an Easter egg was more than he seemed.

His eyes weren't vacant like those of other game characters. Instead, they were full of intelligence.

That was something even current gaming technology couldn't change.

So he had a bold suspicion: could this supposed Easter egg character be a human trapped inside the game?

After running all the way to the cannibal camp, Wang Lei hid in the bushes and watched in his usual sneaky fashion.

"Guys, let's vote. Should I go straight out, or wait until this NPC finishes killing the cannibals?"

[Streamer, just put up a vote on whether to kill this NPC. I say kill him. His gear is way too good.]

[Download the game and try it yourself, commenter above! That Easter egg rescue worker the devs added doesn't drop his weapons even if you kill him.]

[And they call this the most realistic game? What a load of crap!]

Before long, the stream's chat had turned into an entirely different scene, with all sorts of people looking down on one another.

Seeing the chat arguing again left Wang Lei speechless. He could only contact the moderators again and have them kick out a few of the ringleaders.

As for killing this supposed NPC, Wang Lei couldn't bring himself to do it. He had a vague feeling that this really wasn't an NPC.

The last time they met, he had even seemed to want to talk to him. Unfortunately, Wang Lei had been playing on a PC, which had no voice function. The virtual reality pod did have one, but it was practically useless. After all, the cannibals in the game were all programs and couldn't understand whatever crap you were spouting.

Soon, under Lin Feng's precise gunfire, every cannibal in the camp was shot dead.

Lin Feng had deliberately counted as he killed them and found there were more than the twenty-five cannibals the system had mentioned. Perhaps some more had been drawn over by the gunfire?

Lin Feng had also found the cannibal chief. He wore a necklace strung with numerous human bones, and his weapon was a human skull. He also had three legs and four arms. Lin Feng had to admit, the guy could really take a beating. It had taken five or six shots to kill him.

Unfortunately, he hadn't had anything useful on him. The only useful thing in the entire cannibal settlement was probably that golden treasure chest.

The floors had become much harder, just as the broadcast had said. Without his automatic rifle, Lin Feng probably wouldn't have acted so brazenly, let alone the other survivors who only had weapons like bows and arrows. Once the cannibals surrounded them, all they could do was wait to die.

"I'll find the chest first."

Lin Feng checked how long remained before the elevator closed. Seeing that he still had time, he began searching carefully for the golden chest. He hadn't found it in any of the several thatched huts he'd checked earlier.

Now only one place remained: the hole the cannibals had crawled out of.

Looking at the narrow, damp opening, Lin Feng broke out in goosebumps.

Do I really have to go down there?

Just looking at it is setting off my claustrophobia!

Just then, egged on by his viewers, Wang Lei slowly stepped out of the bushes.

To avoid getting riddled with bullets by this NPC, Wang Lei called out a greeting beforehand.

[The streamer's such an idiot. Why even bother saying hello? It's just an NPC. The devs probably set him as a friendly NPC who won't attack you no matter what you do.]

[Fair point, but maybe the streamer's immersed in the virtual reality setting.]

[Honestly, when I play VR games, I sometimes treat NPCs like people too.]

[Hahaha, treating them like people is so real. It's like when I play Morality and Rule of Law 10 in a gaming pod. I even feel bad about killing people.]

Wang Lei wasn't looking at the chat at that moment. Instead, he was ready to end the stream at any time, because he was about to ask some rather stupid questions. He was afraid that tomorrow, clickbait accounts would smear him as a streamer who'd lost his mind playing games.

A streamer who couldn't tell the virtual world from the real one.

"Guys, I just got a notice that the power's going out in about five minutes. So if the stream suddenly ends, don't ask why. I'll start streaming again when the power comes back."

[A power outage? Fuck! Streamer, are you trying to slack off?]

[I don't believe power outages still happen in this day and age. He's definitely looking for an excuse to take a day off.]

[I'll send a rocket. Don't let the power go out.]

[Hahahaha...]

Lin Feng watched the player slowly approach him, feeling rather puzzled. Why wasn't this guy playing his game properly instead of coming over to bother him?

Wait!

Does he think I'm an NPC in the game??

Knowing what players are like, that's very possible.

"Hello."

Wang Lei spoke cautiously.

"Hello."

[Holy shit! The streamer's interacting with an NPC!]

[Could this be something the devs are testing? Maybe players using gaming pods will be able to chat with NPCs through the in-game voice function in the future!]

[That makes sense. Since the gaming pods have a voice function, it must have a purpose. Keep talking to him, streamer! See what you can find out.]

Click!

[The streamer is offline. Follow so you can find your way back~]

Faced with the abrupt end of the stream, the viewers began discussing things even more heatedly. Although Wang Lei had just made the excuse that the power would go out shortly, in an age of such advanced technology, a power outage really was a rather far-fetched reason.

So not a single person believed that excuse. Instead, they discussed things like how the streamer had accessed a feature under internal testing and the developers had contacted him to end the stream.

But none of that concerned Wang Lei anymore. He was now absolutely certain that the person before him wasn't an NPC in the game, but a living, breathing human.

Because, as far as he knew, the developers of The Forest hadn't made a feature for interacting with NPCs. The in-game voice function had also been intended for multiplayer.

"Hello, are you human?"

Wang Lei's question left Lin Feng utterly speechless.

Do I look that different from a human??

Or does this guy not think I'm an NPC...

"As you can plainly see, I'm human."

"I mean, are you a human trapped in the game? This forest is a game from my perspective."

"I probably don't count as a human trapped in this game. I'll be leaving this world in another hour and a half."

Hearing Lin Feng's words, Wang Lei was so excited he could have flown.

He hadn't expected to actually encounter something so mysterious.

"Then what are you?"

"I... suppose I'm a poor sap traveling between all sorts of worlds."

Lin Feng spoke after giving it some thought. That really was his current situation. Every day brought a different floor, and every floor was a different world.

And now, in a game world, he had actually been discovered by a player.

Soon, these two people from different worlds and different civilizations began chatting.